Annotated Bibliography of Macbeth Criticism

[Click on the title of any item to see the full citation and a short review.]
Adelman, Janet. "'Born of Woman': Fantasies of Maternal Power in Macbeth." 1987.
Topic: The play as symbolic of the struggle between masculine and feminine identity.
Grade: C-
Bartholomeusz, Dennis. Macbeth and the Players. 1969.
Topic: Actors' interpretations of the parts of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Grade: C
Berger, Harry, Jr. "The Early Scenes of Macbeth." 1980.
Topic: Contrarian view of King Duncan and the health of the Scottish body politic.
Grade: F
Blissett, William. "The Secret'st Man of Blood." 1959.
Topics: Dramatic irony. Motifs of "air, blood, seed, and time."
Grade: C+
Booth, Stephen. "Macbeth, Aristotle, Definition, and Tragedy." 1983.
Topics: Tragedy, Macbeth.
Grade: C-
Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy. 1905.
Topics: Atmosphere, the Witches, character analysis.
Grade: A
Brooks, Cleanth. "The Naked Babe and the Cloak of Manliness." 1947.
Topics: Metaphors in Macbeth.
Grade: A
Calderwood, James L. Macbeth and Tragic Action. 1986.
Topics: Avant-garde theories about Macbeth.
Grade: D
Driver, Tom F. "The Uses of Time: Oedipus Tyrannus and Macbeth." 1960.
Topic: Macbeth v. Time.
Grade: C+
Elliott, G. R. Dramatic Providence in Macbeth. 1960.
Topic: A Christian approach to Macbeth.
Grade: D
Everett, Barbara. "Macbeth: Succeeding." 1989.
Topic: The failure of Macbeth's success.
Grade: C+
Felperin, Howard. Shakespearean Representation. 1977.
Topic: The modernity of Macbeth.
Grade: C
Fergusson, Francis. "Macbeth as the Imitation of an Action." 1952.
Topic: Macbeth as "the imitation of an action . . . which may be indicated by the phrase 'to outrun the pauser, reason'."
Grade: C
Foakes, R. A. "Images of death: ambition in Macbeth." 1982.
Topic: Macbeth's ambition.
Grade: B+
Frye, Northrop. Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy. 1967.
Topic: The nature of tragedy, kinds of tragedy.
Grade: D
Gardner, Helen. "Milton's 'Satan' and The Theme of Damnation in Elizabethan Tragedy." 1948.
Topic: "the deforming of a creature in its origin bright and good, by its own willed persistence in acts against its own nature"
Grade: B
Gohlke, Madelon. "'I wooed thee with my sword': Shakespeare's Tragic Paradigms." 1980.
Topic: Feminine values in Macbeth.
Grade: C
Goldberg, Jonathan. "Speculations: Macbeth and source." 1987.
Topic: Deconstructionist speculations.
Grade: F
Goldman, Michael. "Speaking Evil: Language and Action in Macbeth." 1985.
Topic: Macbeth's psyche.
Grade: C
Greenblatt, Stephen. "Shakespeare Bewitched." 1993.
Topic: Shakespeare's treatment of the Witches.
Grade: C
Heilman, Robert B. "The Criminal as Tragic Hero: Dramatic Methods." 1966.
Topic: The problem of how or whether the audience identifies with Macbeth.
Grade: B+
Holloway, John. The Story of the Night. 1961.
Topic: Revolt v. Providence.
Grade: D
Hopkins, Lisa. The Shakespearean Marriage. 1998.
Topic: Feminist view of Shakespeare's portrayal of marriage.
Grade: D
Hunter, Robert. Shakespeare and the Mystery of God's Judgments. 1976.
Topic: Macbeth in light of Christian theories about damnation.
Grade: B
Jorgensen, Paul. Our Naked Frailties:
Sensational Art and Meaning in Macbeth. 1971.
Topic: The sources of the emotional effect of Macbeth.
Grade: A
Kahn, Coppélia. "The Milking Babe and the Bloody Man in Coriolanus and Macbeth." 1981.
Topic: Macbeth's manliness.
Grade: B
Kimbrough, Robert. "Macbeth: The Prisoner of Gender." 1983.
Topic: "the personal and social destructiveness of polarized masculinity and femininity"
Grade: A
Kirsch, Arthur. The Passions of Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes. 1990.
Topic: The truth to life of Macbeth's character.
Grade: A
Knights, L. C. "How Many Children Had Lady Macbeth?" 1933.
Topic: "How should we read Shakespeare?"
Grade: B
Mack, Maynard. "The Many Faces of Macbeth." 1993.
Topic: Various observations about the play.
Grade: B+
Mack, Maynard Jr. "The Voice in the Sword." 1973.
Topic: The meaning of kingship.
Grade: A
McAlindon, T. Shakespeare's tragic cosmos. 1991.
Topic: Various themes in Macbeth.
Grade: C
McElroy, Bernard. "Macbeth: The Torture of the Mind." 1973.
Topic: Macbeth as a tragic hero who is repulsed by his own criminality.
Grade: A-
Moretti, Franco. "'A Huge Eclipse': Tragic Form and the Deconsecration of Sovereignty." 1982.
Topic: The historical consequences of the tragic form.
Grade: D
Muir, Kenneth. Shakespeare: The Great Tragedies. 1966.
Topic: Various.
Grade: D
Mullaney, Steven. The Place of the Stage 1988.
Topic: "the negotiation and production of social meaning"
Grade: F
Murray, J. Middleton. "The Time Has Been." 1936.
Topic: The effect of their crime on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Grade: B+
Norbrook, David. "Macbeth and the Politics of Historiography." 1987.
Topic: Relationship between Macbeth and political ideologies of Shakespeare's time.
Grade: C
Paul, Henry N. "The Royal Play of Macbeth. 1950.
Topic: The influence of King James on the writing of Macbeth.
Grade: B
Rosen, Michael. Shakespeare and the Craft of Tragedy. 1964.
Topics: The audience's reaction to Macbeth's character.
Grade: A
Rosenberg, Marvin. The Masks of Macbeth. 1978.
Topics: All the different ways that Macbeth has been viewed by critics and played on stage.
Grade: B
Sanders, Wilbur. The Dramatist and the Received Idea. 1968.
Topic: Shakespeare's philosophical complexity.
Grade: B
Sewell, Arthur. Character and Society in Shakespeare. 1951.
Topic: Macbeth as a sociopath.
Grade: C
Sinfield, Alan. "Macbeth: history, ideology, and intellectuals." 1986.
Topic: "Oppositional analysis" of the play's political implications.
Grade: F
Spender, Stephen. "Time, Violence, and Macbeth." 1941.
Topic: The theme of time in Macbeth.
Grade: C
Spurgeon, Caroline. "Shakespeare's Imagery in Macbeth." 1935.
Topic: Imagery, particularly the images of Macbeth's clothes.
Grade: A
Stallybrass, Peter. "Macbeth and witchcraft." 1982.
Topic: Witchcraft as a patriarchal construct.
Grade: C
Stirling, Brents. "'Look, how our partner's rapt'." 1956.
Topic: Themes of "darkness, sleep, raptness, and contradiction."
Grade: C
Waith, Eugene M. "Manhood and Valor in Macbeth." 1950.
Topic: Moral and humane manhood v. manhood as simple valor.
Grade: A
Wells, Stanley. "A Scottish Tragedy: Macbeth." 1994.
Topic: General introduction.
Grade: B+
Whitaker, Virgil K. The Mirror up to Nature: The Technique of Shakespeare's Tragedies. 1965.
Topic: Christian interpretation.
Grade: C
Willbern, David. "Phantasmagoric Macbeth." 1986.
Topic: Psychoanalytic interpretation.
Grade: F
Williams, Raymond. "Monologue in Macbeth." 1983.
Topic: Types of soliloquies and monologues.
Grade: F
Wilson, Harold S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. 1957.
Topics: Tragedy, Macbeth's character.
Grade: B